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Ten years into widowhood, after one year of incredible happiness and nearly 14 years of single blessedness. Retired, and mostly enjoying it. Still knitting. [Zen]tangling.again after a brief hiatus.

Sunday, February 09, 2014

Brian Kershisnik

That's the artist I learned about on Thursday night. You should google him. My phone finally let me connect to his website. And there are several of his giclees I want. The one that Sarah showed me is his Nativity. It is breathtaking.

It's going to be awhile before the one I've chosen, comes home to me. Lorelai needs a $600 repair to pass safety inspection. Power steering pressure hose.  My mechanic says: next car? Toyota or Honda, because there are widely available aftermarket parts. If she needs another big ticket repair in the next four years, I will reluctantly just sell her, as-is.

I am repeating to myself: it's not a car payment. It's not a car payment. It's not a car payment. But my planned trip to Utah might have to be postponed until next year. I am hoping that I won't have to back out of my Nauvoo trip and lose my deposit. I was expecting a nice tax refund refund this year but instead may have to pay a slightly larger amount than the expected refund.

The actual out of pocket will depend on the refund from filing an amended return for 2012. So I need to do the amended return, file an extension with an estimated payment of the difference, and wait for the refund to be applied to this year's return.

I am not worried about the money, because this is not 1996, when the AG's office forgave the children's father's judgment on defaulted student loans and 1099'd us, raising our tax bite to two-thirds of that year's gross income! One of the credit card companies has forgiven the balance and 1099'd Beloved. (Texas law prohibits them from attaching a lien to our homestead, the only significant asset of his estate.) It stinks that half of that balance was actually owed by one of his sons. I know better than to ask him to pay half of the tax bite.

If worse comes to worst, I will pull money from my 401K to pay the taxes. But I'm pretty sure that if I budget effectively, that won't be necessary. Which means that I will probably have to hold off on banjo lessons until I know about my raise and bonus. I'm not expecting much of either, as last year was a difficult and frustrating one at work, and it will be reflected in my final performance review next month.

I may need to hold off on banjo camp as well. Hope not.

All of this could be seriously crabbifying, except for the calm assurance that comes from being a full tithe-payer. I don't know how it will all work out. I just trust that it will, better than anyone could reasonably expect.

2 comments:

Jenni said...

A grain of salt for that Honda/Toyota thing... great cars but you will pay so much more up front. Can be worth it in the long run, just know that going in.

Tola said...

Subaru. then you have the capability of hauling almost what you can put in a pickup.